#84: The Answers 6/28/10

[YAK_Jayson]

Here are the answers (a week late) to the questions submitted way back on 6/4/2010. Enjoy (if you can).

Q1) The past few QnA sessions with various sites in the community have been fruitful in terms of receiving advanced looks at upcoming figures like the modified General Grievous w/cape, the ultra-evil Senate Duel Darth Sidious and Leia Organa in Hoth Gear. We were hoping to get in on the goods with a detailed sneak peek at the new "Vintage" Sith Apprentice Anakin Skywalker that features the dark side visage and upgraded articulation. Any help would be hot!

A1) At this point, Comic Con and CV are right around the corner and we need to hang on to the upcoming basic figures for some key reveals at the show. Stay tuned - we promise it will be worth the wait.

Editors Note: I'm not surprised they didn't give us an image considering most of their new product has been spoiled for SDCC and CV.

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Q2) Many collectors have voiced their concerns that the last two waves of Clone Wars figures (consisting of Cold Weather Anakin, Thi-Sen, Cmdr. Stone, Darth Sidious, TX-20, Firefighter Droid, Cold Weather Obi-Wan, MagnaGuard and Cold Weather Rex) have been a real Rancor to come across at retail. Meanwhile, stores have been inundated with older case assortments containing Whorm Loathsom, Echo, Admiral Yularen and the like. Are these lasts two hard-to-find waves still making their way to retail or are they casualties of "last wave syndrome" - a plague from which the Star Wars line often suffers when there is a packaging switch over?


A2) At this point, new shipments of Clone Wars figures are over. The actual batch size for the last 5 or so waves, however, were the same size of most of the previous waves so they did not suffer from the typical last-wave syndromes in terms of how many figures were made for public consumption (unlike Legacy/Droid Factory, which did have smaller batches for the last couple of waves). What you are seeing with older figures being re-released is that we have stock that we set aside from previous waves, when the build was larger, being re-released so we can be clean of the red/white packaging.

[AaylaSecurasMan]

It's hard to get infor when SDCC is so close , but nice try

I don't believe the answer to question#2 it is obvious that those waves were produced in significantly lower numbers than the previous ones, I don't buy it

[YAK_Chewie]

So, the last couple waves weren't produced in lower numbers? Then I guess they are going to show up after the new blue packaging figures hit in bulk?

Seriously - I have three TRU stores, and 5-6 of each Wal-Mart and Target in my area. I hit a combintation of at least a dozen stores each week. And here's what I've seen from the final waves of Clone Wars:

CW36: Clone Tank Gunner - maybe 3-4 total
CW37: Ziro’s Assassin Droid - - maybe 3-4 total
CW38: Clone Trooper Jek - maybe 3-4 total
CW39: Commander Bly - maybe 3-4 total
CW40: Aayla Secura - maybe 3-4 total
CW41: Hondo Ohnaka - maybe 3-4 total
CW42: Anakin Skywalker (Cold Weather Gear) - maybe 5-6 total
CW43: Thi-Sen - a grand total of TWO
CW44: Clone Commander Stone - maybe 3-4 total
CW45: Darth Sidious - a grand total of ONE
CW46: Commander TX-20 - a grand total of TWO
CW47: Firefighter Droid - maybe 3-4 total
CW48: Obi-Wan Kenobi (Cold Weather Gear) - maybe 5-6 total
CW49: MagnaGuard - a grand total of ZERO
CW50: Captain Rex (Cold Assault Gear) - maybe 3-4 total

Something is seriously wrong here. I don't even collect these figures other than ones like Thi-Sen and TX-20 that blend in well with the movie style figures. But I always pay attention.

Anyone need an army of any of these? If I went on a toy run around St. Louis this week, I could get dozens of each for you.

CW06: Mace Windu
CW07: Admiral Yularen
CW08: Jawas
CW10: ARF Trooper
CW11: Heavy Assault Super Battle Droid
CW15: Whorm Loathsom
CW16: Commando Droid
CW17: Clone Trooper Echo
CW20: Clone Trooper Denal

You know... last time we saw something remotely like this, it was with the B.A.D. pegwarmers, and Hasbro blamed collectors. It was entirely our fault... I wonder why aren't they blaming kids now for the Clone Wars backup?

[Lindsey]

I was somehow lucky to get a TX-20 and firefighter droid at my TRU but both were weeks apart and there was only one of them in both cases

[darth_sidious]

At this point, I dont really believe Hasbros answer, because I didnt even see pegwarmers from the 3 waves this year for the most part - figures like Aayla, Sidious, and the Mangaguard I've never once seen at retail - so there is no way they were produced in the same numbers.

[YAK_Chewie]

Yeah, something doesn't add up with what Hasbro's claiming here (haven't we all been stating that a lot the past year or so?).

I guess they could have produced them in similar numbers though - but perhaps the retailers simply did not order them like they had expected? That seems to be what they have hinted happened with Legacy - they had some figures cause a bottleneck that resulted in the retailers slowing down their orders.

And when that happened... BAM! They decided to end the B.A.D. concept, telling us that it was our fault that the line didn't continue. We heard over and over the same tired phrase, "Due to the drop in collector interest..." but never did they step up and try to take accountability for any of it. They pointed the finger at us, their most loyal customers.

So here we are now, and the situation with CW seems to mirror what we saw with Legacy. Perhaps one of these days Hasbro will acknowledge that they have had problems managing the line - a lot of that has to do with them creating poor case ratios in my opinion.

[Paulskywalker]

The same thing has happened here with the Secura wave and beyond.

[Grimace]

I wonder if there will be a CW Legends line

[zedhatch]

Yeah, something doesn't add up with what Hasbro's claiming here (haven't we all been stating that a lot the past year or so?).

I guess they could have produced them in similar numbers though - but perhaps the retailers simply did not order them like they had expected? That seems to be what they have hinted happened with Legacy - they had some figures cause a bottleneck that resulted in the retailers slowing down their orders.

And when that happened... BAM! They decided to end the B.A.D. concept, telling us that it was our fault that the line didn't continue. We heard over and over the same tired phrase, "Due to the drop in collector interest..." but never did they step up and try to take accountability for any of it. They pointed the finger at us, their most loyal customers.

So here we are now, and the situation with CW seems to mirror what we saw with Legacy. Perhaps one of these days Hasbro will acknowledge that they have had problems managing the line - a lot of that has to do with them creating poor case ratios in my opinion.

Props to chewie, but in all seriousness I will take it a step further and say this is hasbro accross the board. This same issue is rearing its ugly head in the Marvel Universe line right now. Like with legacy they are releasing wave after wave and the stores are bottle necked with Revision cases loaded with pegwarmers like Spider-Man, Namor, Iron Man (Especially after his own line, the IM fig from wave 1 mu is horrid). Yet the line is now three waves removed from that case since may (Cap/Thor wave, Archangel wave, Iron Patriot/Iron Spidey wave). Iron man 2 line had a similar issue too, it has taken over 2 months for the hulkbuster wave to reach retail with any level of signifigance.

This is exactly what happend to the 25th GI Joe line 2 years ago, a mass release (5 waves in the month of November) and none of the product reaching retail. Now the waves are popping up in family dollars and Big Lots.

GI Joe ROC of course had similar issues and ultimatly wave 3 was shortended (Karmakura wave).

So yes this is an all around the board thing.

[darthromine]

I have yet to see one Clone Wars Aayla Secura, Hondo Ohnaka, or TX-130, and have seen only one Darth Sidious and one Thi-Sen. The lack of product on shelves this year has been abysmal. I'm looking for two Aaylas, one or two Hondos, and one Sidous - anyone have any suggestions????

[darthromine]

If you have any suggestions on how I can get these figures, please send me an email at gwromine@hotmail.com. Thanks!

[YAK_Chewie]

This is exactly what happend to the 25th GI Joe line 2 years ago, a mass release (5 waves in the month of November) and none of the product reaching retail. Now the waves are popping up in family dollars and Big Lots.

GI Joe ROC of course had similar issues and ultimatly wave 3 was shortended (Karmakura wave).

So yes this is an all around the board thing.

Very good point about the GI Joe line... the entire situation with Star Wars is very similar to that. And I'm thankful that I don't collect Iron Man stuff - I'd go insane swimming through hundreds of different Iron Man suits just looking for a bad guy.

They really have made some bad calls lately with case assortments across the board.

Of course though, it's not their fault. We are the ones at fault because they're just the ones making the figures, determining the case ratios, marketing their product, etc.

[YAK_Chewie]

I have yet to see one Clone Wars Aayla Secura, Hondo Ohnaka, or TX-130, and have seen only one Darth Sidious and one Thi-Sen. The lack of product on shelves this year has been abysmal. I'm looking for two Aaylas, one or two Hondos, and one Sidous - anyone have any suggestions????

Not sure if you've been looking on ebay or not - that might be a good bet. You could also post a needs list in the classifieds section too.

[zedhatch]

Not sure if you've been looking on ebay or not - that might be a good bet. You could also post a needs list in the classifieds section too.

What is amazying to me is how much I have ordered this year online, Useually I jus grab a few things here and there, but this year I must have used online at least 15 times (which is alot for me, I can normally count on my hand how many I do).

Back to your Iron man point Chewie, I was going nuts looking for Hulkbuster Iron Man, essentally couldnt find the main character of the line. Yeah that is bad.

[heybert17]

If the Legacy Collction did so bad and the collectors are the ones to blame then how come this year we are the ones getting shafted. Hasbro is increasing the price of the Vintage Collection by 1.00 over the Clone Wars and Legends figures. Is it because those 2 sell better, no, it is because they know they have a loyal built in base with us. The Vintage Collection will sell very well with the "new" figures disappearaing almost as soon as they hit the shelf. They are basically penalizing us for being the only steady income they have with the Star Wars line. We will keep the line afloat while the whole time hasbro will continue to insist that Star Wars is a kid driven line yet the kid lines of Clone Wars and Legends languish while "new" Legacy figures are very hard to find with only Legacy repacks still available anywhere. has anyone seen a single one of the EU TRU figures just hang around, I bet many of you are still trying to get them because the sold out almost instantly, except online where retailers want to gouge us Collectors like hasbro is doing with the Vintage figures, the Vintage figures are no more special than the Legacy, CW or Legends, just aimed at collectors and hasbro knows we will buy regardless of how much they overcharge us.